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Some forty scholars examine California's prehistory and archaeology, looking at marine and terrestrial palaeoenvironments, initial human colonization, linguistic prehistory, early forms of exchange, mitochondrial DNA studies, and rock art. This work is the most extensive study of California's prehistory undertaken in the past 20 years. An essential resource for any scholar of California prehistory and archaeology!
"A provocative and innovative reexamination of the trajectory of sociopolitical evolution among Native American groups in California, this book explains the region's prehistorically rich diversity of languages, populations, and environmental adaptations. Ethnographic and archaeological data and evolutionary, economic, and anthropological theory are often presented to explain the evolution of increasing social complexity and inequality. In this account, these same data and theories are employed to argue for an evolving pattern of 'orderly anarchy,' which featured small, inward-looking groups that, having devised a diverse range of ingenious solutions to the many environmental, technological, and social obstacles to resource intensification, were crowded onto what they had turned into the most densely populated landscape in aboriginal North America"--Provided by publishe
First published in 1998. Did prehistoric humans walk to North America from Siberia? Who were the inhabitants of the spectacular Anasazi cliff dwellings in the Southwest and why did they disappear? Native Americans used acorns as a major food source, but how did they get rid of the tannic acid which is toxic to humans? How does radiocarbon dating work and how accurate is it? Written for the informed lay person, college-level student, and professional, Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia is an important resource for the study of the earliest North Americans; including facts, theories, descriptions, and speculations on the ancient nomads and hunter-gathers that populated continental North America.
California Archaeology provides a compilation of knowledge for archeologists who are not California specialists. This book explains important cultural events and patterns discovered archeologically. Organized into 11 chapters, this book begins with an overview of California's historic and ancient environments as well as the evidence of Pleistocene human activity. This text then examines the glacial and other environmental conditions that would have influenced the origins, adaptations, and spread of the earliest North Americans. Other chapters consider how California's past is relevant to a wider understanding of human behavior. This book discusses as well the perceptions of Central Coast and San Francisco Bay region prehistory that have changed rapidly as a result of intensive fieldwork performed to comply with environmental law. The final chapter deals with the data of historical linguistics, which indicate something of the cultural relationships and events that might have occurred in the past. This book is a valuable resource for archeologists.
The southern California coast has been a favored place to live for nearly 12,000 years. Dotted with marshes, estuaries, cliffs, and open beaches, with islands and mountains lying nearby, the area is rich in resources. How humans have fit into this ecological diverse and ever-changing landscape is a constant theme in the prehistory of the region. Using comparative studies of island and coastal cultures from the Pacific, the authors show how the study of southern California's past can enlighten us about coastal adaptations worldwide. Drawing on sources from anthropology, ethnohistory, geoscience, and archaeology, their findings are presented in a readable fashion that will make Islanders and Mainlanders of interest not only to a wide range of scholars but to the general public as well. Jeffrey H. Altschul is President and Donn R. Grenda is Director of the California Office of Statistical Research, Inc., a cultural resource management consulting firm. Both have been extremely active in southern California archaeology, working on sites on the mainland and the Channel Islands.
This volume investigates the circumstances and conditions under which trade/exchange, direct access, and/or mobility best account for material conveyance across varying distances at different times in the past.
In this unique volume, archaeologists examine the changing economic structure of trade in North America over a period of 6,000 years. Organined by geographical and chronological divisions, each chapter focuses on trade in one of nine regions from the Arachiac through the late prehistoric period. Each contribution explores neighboring areas to llustrate the complexity of North American exchange. By charting the econmic structure of these regions, archaeologists, economic anthropologists, and economic geographers gain greater insight into the dynamics of North American trade and exchange on a continental wide basis.
One of the most geologically complex and diverse states, California spent much of the age of dinosaurs under water. While most of the fossils found in the state are those of reptiles that lived in the sea (thalattosaurs, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and turtles), some are those of birds and pterosaurs that soared above it. Other fossils come from terrestrial animals that died and were washed into the ocean. These include turtles, crocodiles, lizards, and dinosaurs such as armored ankylosaurs, duck-billed hadrosaurs, and a variety of carnivorous dinosaurs. Richard Hilton is the first to tell the unsung story of the dinosaurs and reptiles of land, sea, and sky that lived in California and Baja California during the Mesozoic era (245 million-65 million years ago), in addition to the history of their discovery. Vibrantly illustrated with more than three hundred photographs, paintings, and drawings, this book provides geological and environmental details, describes the significance of the major fossils, and chronicles the adventures involved in the discovery, preparation, and publishing of the finds. Hilton also includes accounts of the scientists, teachers, students, ranchers, and weekend fossil hunters who endured (and continue to endure) harsh weather, fires, wild animals, and the usual challenges of fieldwork to collect fossil remains and make major discoveries. These enthusiasts managed to safeguard an abundance of fossil resources, some of which would otherwise have been destroyed by quarrying, paving, and housing developments. Dinosaurs and Other Mesozoic Reptiles of California takes this legacy one step further by documenting information about the fossils and their finders in accessible prose and vivid artistic renderings, creating a valuable contribution to our understanding of California’s prehistoric past.
This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for California’s remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem type—its distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of California’s ecological patterns and the history of the state’s various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the state’s ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of California’s environment and curious naturalists.
This book was originally published in 1984. For over a million years rocks provided human beings with the essential raw materials for the production of tools. Nevertheless we still know very little about the behaviour and processes that resulted in the creation of archaeological sites at or near lithic quarries. In the past archaeologists have placed much emphasis on the process of 'exchange' in their analysis of prehistoric economies while largely ignoring the sources of the exchanged objects. However, with the development of interest in the means of production, these sites have begun to take on a new significance. Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production is the first systematic study of archaeological sites that served as quarries for stone tools. Its theoretical and methodological importance will extend its appeal beyond those archaeologists concerned with lithic technology and prehistoric exchange systems to archaeologists and anthropologists in general and to geographers and geologists.